Here is the next chapter of Natural Inception. :) I decided to combine chapter's 8 and 9 because they were a little too short for my taste! :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Inception or its characters. I own the Blood Group, Alice, Rosa and the concept of Natural Inception.
Warnings: Death, Blood, Adult Language and Situations
Recap:
Ariadne awoke in the morning to find Arthur's arms still wrapped around her and hers around him. "Today's the day..." She whispered into his chest.
"It is..." His voice startled her and his arms tightened around her body, "Are you ready?"
"Are you?"
"As I'll ever be." He sat up, releasing her and they got dressed, brushed their teeth and hair in silence. Eames and Yusef met them in the lobby and they set off to meet their enemy.
Start:
They took a taxi to the desired street corner; Yusef and Eames riding in one, Ariadne and Arthur in another. The two of them were silent for the entire ride, lost in their own thoughts. Blood was waiting for them on the corner of the street. Ariadne thought his attempt at what he probably believed to be a friendly grin to be more of a leer. She didn't even look at him as they all went into the building. The main room of the warehouse was sparingly furnished: an PASIV on a table on the left side of the room along with four lawn chairs. There was a TV set against the back wall and a bookcase next to it and lastly another, larger table to the right of the room. Marcus was a bit a head of them and gestured to several people sitting at the table just to the right of the middle of the room: "This is my team."
"This is Claudia Jostan, formally Claudia Hastings. She's my Forger." Marcus said, nodding to the only woman at the table. She was at least five foot five, with dark, flawless skin. Her hair was long and black and was currently pulled up into a business style bun, she was also wearing business attire that was the color gray. Pink and gold jewelry glittered from her wrists and ears.
"Kyle, my Chemist. Currently, he's keeping an eye on our insurance." Blood said next, picking up a remote and turning on the television set. The group then saw that the TV had been hooked up to a computer with a web cam, the face of a boy who could be no older then nineteen appeared on the TV screen.
"Hey." He said, moving back a bit in his chair, they could see the upper half of his body and that he was in a room but no other details. Kyle's hair was blond and spiked, the tips of each spike had been died black. He was wearing and black and green T-shirt that was frayed at the hem and dark jeans and sneakers. His arms were crossed and Ariadne could see a wrist band covering what were probably scars from the PASIV needle.
Lastly, Johnathen Brimstone, gave a simple wave and introduced himself; "My name is Johnathen, I am the Architect." John was wearing business attire as well; but of the color black and a simple white button down underneath, he had a cane with an golden handle and a gold watch. His thinning silver white hair had been combed back and his eyes moved over the group. As they settled on Ariadne who was standing at the end of their line she had to repress a shudder; she had never seen eyes that shade of blue, they were so cold and malicious.
"I assume you know us." Arthur said, looking at the group before them.
"Naturally." Johnathen said. The other two nodded. Marcus clapped his hands together; "Great. Lets get started." He turned to Ariadne, "I want to test you against Johnathen. See how well you can manipulate the dream space."
Ariadne's heart beat picked up speed a little as she glanced once at Arthur who nodded, not taking his eyes off Marcus. She could see them flashing darkly; "Blood..."
"Oh don't worry. We aren't going to do any lasting damage, if any damage at all." Blood tried to pass this off as a bit of humor but no one laughed. Ariadne and Johnathen walked over to two of the lawnchairs and hooked themselves up to the PASIV.
"Have fun in there." Marcus said before pushing the button. Ariadne swallowed hard as her eyes fluttered shut.
Dream:
When Ariadne opened her eyes she was in the middle of an cell. That was the only thing that she could think of to describe the room that she was in. It was dark and from the little light that came from the small window in the wall in front of her she could see that the walls and floor were made of concrete. She began to feel around the room looking for a door and found none, "What the-?" Suddenly the little window began to close up, "No!"
A chuckle came over what seemed to be a speaker system; "Are you scared of the dark? You can't get out by using doors little girl. Is this all you got?"
Ariadne glared around the dark space and tried to concentrate, focusing on opening up the four walls. There was a harsh cracking sound like a gunshot and the wall in front of her collapsed and she dashed out, finding herself in a hallway. This one was better lit, but it was still made of stone. Ariadne closed her eyes and imagined pulling Johnathen down to wherever she was, and heard an cracking and creaking as an room was lowered right in front of her. Johnathen was laughing from his seat at a desk, an intercom microphone in his hand; "Not bad."
Suddenly, he lifted his arm and Ariadne saw that there was a gun in his hand. She barely had the panel of concrete shielding her before she heard the bullet hit it.
"What the hell?" She yelped.
"You have to win by killing me girlie." Johnathen laughed. She heard him get up to move around her shield. Ariadne opened the roof above her and shot upwards; these guys are insane, she thought, wildly searching the room for a weapon. There was a gun on the table and she picked it up, looking at it. The gun was a simple pistol, functional. The door to the room flew open and Ariadne whirled around, firing the gun. She heard Johnathen yell and saw that she had missed, hitting him in the leg. He was doubled over and looked up at her, eyes dancing with pain. He lifted his gun to fire at her, but Ariadne imagined an wall dropping over him, sheilding her. Ariadne created a door and hurled through it, racing down antoher hallway, there were no projections so far. But as she opened another door she encountered an man and a woman who both held guns. They aimed and she had to fire quickly to keep from getting shot. "Johnathen's projections." She muttered to herself, were they both subjects in this dream?
Her question was answered as she heard more gun shots down the hallway. Johnathen burst out of another room and she saw an young man fall over, blood pouring out of his mouth, his eyes empty, seeing nothing. Johnathen turned to her, "Found you."
He fired and Ariadne tired to dodge, but she felt the bullet go into her arm. She screamed as white-hot pain laced her arm and shoulder. Johnathen moved to fire again, but she had already pulled the trigger. This time she hit the mark, Johnathen slumped over, a bullet hole between his eyes.
Ariadne staggered back from his body, breathing heavily. She closed her eyes and lifted her gun to her head and pulled the trigger.
Her eyes flew open and she sat up, gasping. Arthur was imediantly at her side; "Are you allright?"
"I-i'm okay..." She whimpered and Arthur saw tears running down her face.
"She's not that bad." Marcus said, looking at his watch, "She had you beat in two minutes Johnathen."
Johnathen was scowling, but Marcus had turned to look at Eames, "Your next Forger."
Eams was glowering at the two men, but hooked himself up to the PASIV anyway. It infuriated him a bit to see they had made the little architect cry like that, it made him sick at their cruel actions, Blood would do anything to find the best wouldn't he? What would happen to them if they failed their tests? He glanced over at Claudia, the woman he would be testing against; Arthur claimed that Marcus had blackmailed this woman into working with him, he wondered how he'd managed it, she certainly had the appearance of one who was collected and careful, someone who would never give in to the demands of a man like Marcus. Blood's Forger sat down in the chair next to him and removed her gray jacket, as she prepared to go into the dream she dropped the facade slightly. She looked nervous and tired as she slid off the bracelets, exposing her wrist and sliding in the IV. For a moment, Claudia glanced over at him and their eyes locked; it was only for a few seconds, but Eames knew that he had found the Blood Group's weak spot. Marcus came over to them, and paused, his finger over the button on the PASIV; "The two of you will be forging as many times as possible in one dream; now, we've modified the sedative, so you will only be in there for around fifteen minutes, in fact..." He straightened up and looked over to where Arthur was sitting with Ariadne; "Arthur, how about you monitor them for me? I know you won't lie about who the winner is."
Arthur hesitated; an frown set on his face. Eames saw the girl's hand squeeze his for a moment, as if trying to assure him that she would be fine if left alone for a few moments. At last he stood up, "Fine." With a couple of strides Arthur laid down in the other chair and hooked himself up; "Yusef, sit with Ariadne."
The Chemist moved to sit beside the Architect while Marcus scoffed, putting his hand over his heart as though he was deeply wounded; "Ah, Arthur, have you no faith in me, old friend?"
"No."
Marcus pushed the button and darkness covered their eyes as they descended into the dream... Marcus then turned to Ariadne and Yusef; "Don't worry Chemist, I can't test you, due to the fact that my Chemist is busy at the moment." Ariadne could feel Yusef relax next to her, but neither of them looked away from their friends until they could hear Kyle's chuckle coming from the television screen. The two of them looked over and could see that he'd moved his chair closer to the web-cam, so that only his face and shoulders were visible, and was looking at the semi-blurry figures of Arthur, Claudia, and Eames; "My money's on Claudia."
When the three of them opened their eyes they found themselves in the middle of a crowded dinning hall. Arthur noticed he was wearing an black tux with an pale blue tie and was seated at an table with an elderly couple who were paying him no attention. 'I must be the dreamer...' He thought to himself, scanning the room for Eames and Claudia, had they already forged? No. He spotted the two of them on the smaller dance floor at the front of the room, so this was how he was expected to watch them forge? Eames held his hand out to Claudia, but suddenly, he wasn't Eames, he was Arthur. Arthur, back at the table, lifted a drink to his lips; keeping the score mentally; 1.
"May I have this dance?"Eam-arthur said, grasping Claudia's hand; "Beware, I'll probably act like a robot due to the fact I swallowed a stick on the ride down here tonight."
"Fine." Claudia said, before changing into Eames; "I'll lead." Clau-eames spun Eam-arthur, before beginning something of a tango. Arthur chocked on his scotch, glaring at Eames, what the hell? 1 to 1.
They vanished from Arthur's sight for a moment as an couple twirled past them; revealing that Eames had changed again; into Claudia. "You're very light on your feet..." Eam-dia said; "Now why is a talented, beautiful woman like you working for a guy like Blood?"
Claud-eams dipped the Forged version of herself; "I don't think it's any of your business." Lifting Eam-dia back up she forged again; into Blood. The two kept at it, Forging into people they knew and random people: Yusef, Ariadne, Dom, Alice, Kyle, Johnathen, an blond woman, an Indian man, an elderly couple. All the while Eames kept pestering Claudia; "Come on love, what did he do to you?"
The song ended and Eames; looking like an pale boy with messy, greasy auburn hair with golden eyes, "Let us help you.", dipped the dark brunette pale, excessively blinking, girl Claudia; "Marcus had been hounding me for months, ever since he discovered that I could Forge... it was a secret that I kept from my husband. But, one night, when we were traveling, I came back to the hotel to find him..." Claudia shifted again; now she was a tall, willowy, tanned woman with pale blond streaks in her light brown hair, the woman's green eyes flashed with outrage; "With this bitch!" Unable to hold that form she changed back to her original appearance; "So... I snapped, I shot them. When I attempted to flee the room Marcus was standing in the hallway..."
Back at the table Arthur's eyes narrowed; Eames was just standing there, listening to Claudia; he couldn't make out there words, but he knew they were running out of time and they were tied at 10 forges each; "Come on Eames..."
"He told me how he hid a camera in the room and was planning on blackmailing me by threatening to ruin my husband's career, but that now, he could blackmail me by threatening to send me to jail... so, I've worked for him ever since." Claudia changed into a man who was a little over six foot with red hair and glasses, he had a kind smile as he looked at Eames; "How can you help me with that?"
"Eames!" Arthur called as somewhere in the room a clock chimed, with each chime, the world around them cracked and shattered, piece by piece until they fell into darkness. Arthur opened his eyes and found himself looking up at Marcus' smiling form; "So, who won?"
Gritting his teeth Arthur sat up and pulled the IV out of his arm; "Claudia..."
Alice opened her eyes as the red rays of the setting sun streamed through her window. The color reminded her errily of blood; her head was spinning, making the walls lurch with a sickening slant when she tried to stand. She had slept most of the past week away; ever since the last time she'd seen Arthur and the others, she'd taken the drug. The drug that would banish both her and her alternate persona into a sleep so deep that neither would awaken until the effects wore off. But, each morning the side-effects were getting worse and worse; and each day Rosa's voice got stronger...
That's it for this chapter... I wanted to get more descriptive in the dream-forge dance, but... I couldn't pull it all together. :) Hope you liked it, keep an eye out for the next one and the continuation of The Psychic and the Doctor, remember please R&R they= love! :D
I hope you all enjoyed it. Please R&R!
